Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

J. K. Rowling

Analysis of Major Characters

Epigraphs–Chapter One

Themes

The Difficulty of Loving the Dead

Harry spends the entire book struggling to complete a
quest that his friend and mentor, Dumbledore, charged him with before
he died. Harry consistently does his best to do what Dumbledore
has asked of him, but the hardest thing about the quest is not its
danger or mystery. Instead, it’s the doubts Harry feels about whether
Dumbledore really loved him. When Harry learns that Dumbledore had
a mother and sister buried in the same place as Harry’s parents,
Harry wonders why Dumbledore didn’t tell him. When he can’t figure
out what to do next, he wonders why Dumbledore didn’t give him the information
he needs to complete the quest. Faced with the constant presence
of Rita Skeeter’s malicious biography, he even starts to wonder
whether Dumbledore was worthy of his love and respect at all. The
struggle to keep faith with Dumbledore is every bit as important
to the novel as the struggle to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes.

Harry’s story demonstrates that the reason it’s so difficult
to love the dead is that it’s hard to believe that they love you.
They can no longer explain their actions or profess their love,
and it’s easy to believe that they are simply gone, past caring
about or loving anyone. This perception overpowers Harry on his
visit to his parents’ graves. He is drawn to Godric’s Hollow because
he longs to find some connection both to his parents and to Dumbledore,
but all the trip brings him is the sense that they are gone and
cannot hear him or answer back, ever.

And yet the book’s message regarding dead friends is extremely optimistic.
The epigraph from William Penn declares that friends cannot be separated
by death, though it takes Harry the entire book to find the truth
of this. When Harry finally lets go of his fears that Dumbledore
didn’t love him, he is rewarded with an inner Dumbledore—a Dumbledore
in his own mind—who is so vivid and realistic that he is in a sense
the real thing. Only then does Harry recapture his own love for
Dumbledore.

The Importance of Second Chances

Much earlier in the series, in Harry Potter and
the Goblet of Fire, various characters speak of Dumbledore’s
unusual, even extravagant belief in second chances. When people
mention this about Dumbledore, they usually mean to imply that he
is somehow gullible or imprudent. Harry and Ron refuse to believe
that Snape might once have been a Death Eater but has since reformed—so
Dumbledore’s belief in second chances is simply the explanation
for how Dumbledore must have been fooled.

In this book, we see in a number of cases how wise Dumbledore really
was. Most dramatically, we see how Snape turned his entire life
around after he placed Lily Potter in danger, becoming Voldemort’s
most trusted servant so that he could spy on him and protect Harry.
Snape’s efforts proved indispensable to Harry and Dumbledore time
and time again. Dumbledore remarks casually that “we sort too soon,”
meaning that Snape might have been erroneously sorted into Slytherin
house as a young man, and implying that his bravery might make him
better suited to Gryffindor—if only the Sorting Hat could have taken
into account how much Snape changed for the better.

We also see the reason why Dumbledore learns to give second chances,
when we learn of his true early history. Faced with a sister irreparably
damaged in an attack by Muggle boys, and with a father imprisoned
for life for attacking those boys, Dumbledore briefly dreams of
a world in which wizards rule Muggles for their own good. He quickly
repents and spends a lifetime trying to repair his mistake, but
he also retains a tolerance for others’ mistakes and a perception
that love is a powerful motivator, capable of redeeming a person’s
worst misdeeds.

Finally, we see that Dumbledore is wise enough to see
the flaws in Ron’s character and foresee the mistake Ron will make,
giving up on Harry when things get too tough and there’s no one
to lead Ron or provide for him. So Dumbledore arranges for Ron’s
second chance ahead of time, bequeathing him the Deluminator that
will lead Ron back to Harry and Hermione when he’s ready to rise
to the occasion.

Keeping Faith with the Dead

The only person capable of planning and orchestrating
Voldemort’s downfall is Dumbledore, because no one but he has the
wisdom or knowledge to piece together what Voldemort has done and
figure out how to undo it. And yet Dumbledore knows that this difficult work
will only be completed after his death. Not only Harry, Ron, and
Hermione, but also Snape, Lupin, Moody, and all the members of the
Order of the Phoenix have to keep doing their part after Dumbledore’s
death, carrying out his vision. As we have seen, believing in Dumbledore’s
quest after he is dead is not easy for Harry, nor is it for any
of the others.

But Dumbledore is not the only dead character who needs
the loyalty and love of the living. Snape is a loyal follower of
Dumbledore, but his loyalty and bravery are really a manifestation
of his need to stay loyal to Lily Potter, keeping faith with the
woman he loved after her death. Dobby the house-elf gets himself
killed saving Harry and his friends from Malfoy Manor, and the process
of burying Dobby helps put Harry into a better frame of mind about
his mission. There is no mystery about Dobby or his death: Bellatrix kills
Dobby for helping Harry, and Dobby dies in Harry’s arms, and all
Harry can do is honor the house-elf’s memory and try not to let that
memory down. This experience snaps Harry out of his ambivalence
toward Dumbledore, reminding him that he made a promise to his dead
friend that he needs to honor.

Motifs

Rumor and Gossip

Rita Skeeter’s malicious biography of Dumbledore pops
up throughout the book, beginning with its advance press alongside Dumbledore’s
obituary in Chapter Two. True to form (as we have seen in Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire) Rita Skeeter is ruthlessly exploitative
in getting her story, and she distorts the truth when she digs it
up. Apart from Skeeter, Aunt Muriel is a similarly malicious gossip,
as is the busybody Bathilda Bagshot, the original source for all
the Dumbledore gossip. What is most remarkable about the blend of
half-truths and lies that make up Skeeter’s writing, and gossip
in general, is that it’s so hard for the characters not to believe. Harry
has seen with his own eyes stories by Skeeter that he knows to be
false from start to finish, yet her lies about Dumbledore work on him
until he breaks down and doubts Dumbledore.

Mastering Death

References to “mastering death” occur throughout the book.
The inscription on the gravestone of Harry’s parents reads “the
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,” reminding Harry that Voldemort’s
chief ambition, and that of the Death Eaters, is to master death.
The Deathly Hallows are supposedly objects that will allow the owner
to master death. The meaning of this phrase is ambiguous and changes
in different contexts. What Voldemort seems to want, and what the
Hallows as a whole seem to promise, is immortality—freedom from
ever dying. Being able to kill others is another way of being master
of death, as exemplified by the Elder Wand and by the green rays
of the Killing Curse. Still another way to master death is by resurrecting
dead loved ones, as the second brother in the Hallows does, as Dumbledore
tries to do, and as Harry himself longs to do. Ultimately, the only
true way to master death is to continue loving and believing in
those who have died.

Avada Kedavra

Avada Kedavra, the Killing Curse, is
used again and again in this book by Voldemort and his followers.
When we first learn about it, in Harry Potter and the Goblet
of Fire, we are told that it is one of the Unforgivable
Curses, and its performance is rare. With Voldemort in power, it
has become ubiquitous, demonstrating Voldemort’s disregard for human
life. Harry casts the other two Unforgivable Curses (Cruciatus and Imperius,
torture and mind control), but he never casts or tries to cast this
curse, not even when Lupin urges him to, and not even to kill Voldemort.
Voldemort’s death is ultimately brought about by his own Avada
Kedavra backfiring upon him.

Symbols

The Resurrection Stone

The Resurrection Stone, one of the Deathly Hallows, represents
the desire to bring back the dead. More specifically, it represents
the danger of that desire when pushed to the point of actually trying
to resurrect the dead. Dumbledore ruined his hand and eventually brought
about his own death by trying to use it to speak with his parents
and sister, and the brother in the Hallows story found himself drawn
to suicide after using the Stone. This danger is further symbolized
by the fact that it is cracked, that it is cursed (having been one
of Voldemort’s Horcruxes), and that it appeared on the ring of the
wicked Marvolo Gaunt.

The Elder Wand

The Elder Wand, the first of the three Hallows, is a wand
that ensures that its master will win any duel. No one can truly
possess it without defeating its former owner. Since defeating the
owner in a duel is impossible, this feat is always accomplished
by stealth, murder, or surprise attack. Thus, the Wand symbolizes
both the thirst for unbridled power and the folly of believing that
power and violence can keep you safe. From the first possessor of
the wand onward, the wand has brought death to those who owned it.

The Locket Horcrux

The locket Horcrux that Harry and his friends recover
from Umbridge is, like all of the Horcruxes, cursed. It tries to
kill Harry by strangling him when he’s underwater, it burns itself
into his flesh when he’s fighting Nagini, and it keeps him from
summoning his Patronus by exerting an almost imperceptible negative
influence on the emotions of those who wear it. Nevertheless, its
main function in the plot is not as a magical item or one that can
act to produce serious consequences. Instead, it seems to symbolize
whatever is within each of the characters that they have to overcome
within themselves. With Ron, it helps exacerbate his discomfort
and childishness until he abandons Harry. When Umbridge has it on,
it brings out her own characteristic flaw—her penchant for lying.

Because Harry is very close to Hermione, he doesn't want to look upset and make her feel bad. Also, he knows that there is no way to fix it, so he doesn't want to waste his time moping around. He has to focus on more important things like the horcruxes. He is upset about it, but will just deal with it quietly without hurting Hermione's feelings.